ACCLIMATION TO CAPTIVITY - A QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATE BASED ON SURVIVAL OF BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHINS AND CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS

An estimate of how long marine mammals need to acclimate to captivity would permit more precise comparisons of husbandry practices, yet no q uantitative analysis of acclimation has been performed. Therefore, we estimated the duration of acclimation to captivity for bottlenose dolp hins (BD) and California sea lions (CSL) by comparing 5-d survival rat es during the first 90 d of captivity with a survival rate based on da ys 91-365 in captivity. Wild-born BD (n = 1,270) and CSL (n = 1,650) a cclimate to captivity in approximately 35 and 40 d, respectively, wher eas captive born BD (n = 332) and CSL (n = 332) acclimate in approxima tely 50 and 40 d, respectively. When transferred between two instituti ons, BD (n = 911) acclimated in the same amount of time (45 d) as when first transferred from the wild, whereas transferred CSL (n = 336) ac climated more rapidly (15 vs. 40 d) than when first transferred from t he wild. Based on results from these two species, a 60-d acclimation p eriod is recognized as a distinct interval of relatively high mortalit y that should be treated separately from long-term survival estimates when evaluating husbandry practices of oceanaria and toes.